| justinian said: Unions in many ways represent democracy. Take away unions and the ability to go on strike and you might well soon end up being the Soviet States of America. |
Wow, this is wrong in so many ways.
Firstly, you make the case that democracy and Soviet are antonyms. This could not be further from the truth. The word Soviet means "An elected local, district, or national council in the former USSR." Democracy is, quite literally, there in the name. Adding the word Soviet to America's name only emphasises its democratic nature, at least to those of us who know what the word means.
Regardless, by the time Stalin was in power, (and had thoroughly destroyed the USSR's democracy), trade unionism was much more popular in the USSR than it currently is in the USA, despite the lack of democracy. In 1984, the USSR had 135 million trade union members!
So now you will adjust your point, no doubt. Unions do not represent democracy, but what then? Capitalism?
Again, this is far from the truth. Free market economists hypothesises that by bargaining individually, there is more competition, which leads to increased efficiency. (They of course miss the point that this is only a one sided argument, and thus just leads to an inbalance of bargaining power, which is the problem unions are needed to solve, but that is another matter entirely). Capitalism argues against Trade Unions.
So what do unions represent? Freedom? Are they a libertarian idea? Doubtless a libertarian would suggest that the government do nothing, and trust in the kindness of man to sort things out. As in every other matter, they are too trusting in mankind's heart and brain, but again, a matter for another day. A truly free society will have voluntary unionism, which of course leads to weak unions, as compared to when union membership is mandatory, so unions are hardly the hallmark of a free society.
No, the only true "ism"s that promote Trade Unionism are Socialism and Marxist Communism. They put power in the hands of the people, and take it away from the government. They promote a more fair distribution of wealth, much closer to "each according to their needs" than the alternatives. If the USA wants to earn the name "Soviet States of America", they should increase trade union membership.
Now, if there's one thing I want you to take away from my wall of text, it is below.
tl;dr - Do not simply call your enemies Communists and think you are clever. Because then, someone might actually call you out on the fact that you don't have a single damn clue what a communist is or what he believes.
On topic. America is concentrating more and more money into the richest members. Your national minimum wage is (in real terms) closer to the minimum wage in certain Chinese provinces than to the Scandanavian countries and Australia. Banning trade unions will only worsen these problems.
